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Organisational and human factors

Conveyor belts used to handle organic materials must meet standards defined by various French ministerial orders .These texts indicate that conveyor belts must comply with standard NF EN ISO 340 or standards NF EN 12881-1 and NF EN 12881-2 (self-extinguishing or flame-retardant conveyor belts).
While these types of accident had seemed to have disappeared, in recent years there have been several occurrences. Are the standards always being met?

A fire broke out at 10:15 am in a warehouse subject to authorization (item 1510 of the nomenclature of the French classified installations) at an external storage of wooden pallets. Employees are evacuated prior to the arrival of firefighters.

At around 3 a.m., a deep-seated fire broke out in an outdoor 50,000 m3 woodchip storage in a waste recycling facility (24 m high, located on the facility's property line). White smoke was emitted above the urban zone and the highway. Access to the site was difficult for the firefighters because of the volume of the stack. The wind propagated the flames. An expert specialised in deep-seated fires was called upon. The CASU (the INERIS Emergency Support Unit) was asked to provide models of smoke dispersion, given the possible human consequences [...]

An early analysis of technical or organisational changes often proves to be insufficient, or overlooked altogether, resulting in numerous accidents. In many cases, it is simpler and less costly to use existing installations in order to develop or advance a particular process. Such a step however does require an in-depth analysis of the modifications, combined with an accurate identification of the risks tied to anticipated changes. This fact sheet presents a few examples of accidents before revealing the tools available to enable the successful [...]

Damaged compressor : dual-stage compressor compressing ethylene from 3 to 33 bar. It operates alternately with the main compressor. On the day of the accident, it had been in operation for 43 days since its last maintenance five months prior. It was located next to two other compressors (Nos. 2 and 3). The latter two had been shut down and automatically isolated upon activation of the gas detectors, which was not the case for the damaged compressor No. 1, which had to be isolated manually from the control room.

Fire broke out at 10:50 pm at the site of a logistics company, operating since 2011 in the Tianjin port sector with a floor area covering 46,000 m². At the time of the accident, the company had been storing on-site several types of hazardous substances: calcium carbide, toluene diisocyanate, ammonium nitrates, potassium and sodium, as well as 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide.

In a 3,000 m² vinegar factory, a 150 m³ tank containing 40 m³ of alcohol vinegar exploded at around 9:40 a.m. while undergoing welding work. The tank, measuring 13 m in height and 4 m in diameter, was projected like a missile. It flew through the roof and landed 80 m from the building, on the Nîmes-Grau du Roi railway line. The emergency rescue services took 2 injured employees to the hospital, one of whom had been badly burned. Rail traffic was interrupted. The spilt alcohol was collected in the holding tank. The building adjoining the [...]

In the pyrotechnics sector, 12% of accidents are related to inappropriate human intervention: mainly non-compliance with procedures (since the creation of the ARIA database, 132 accidents are in this case out of a total of 1076). Based on real examples, the purpose of this fact sheet is to present the typical configurations in which operators are knowingly bypassing procedures and investigating the root causes associated, in the different contexts described.

In a chemical plant, a leak of effluents containing acetonitrile (a harmful and flammable solvent) from the process wastewater system lead to groundwater contamination. As the network was used only sporadically, the duration of the leak could not be accurately determined. A maximal estimate gave 557 days. The potential loss is estimated to be 61 t of acetonitrile.

Wells were established to try to recover the pollutant through pumping and to sample the groundwater. Three tonnes of acetonitrile were recovered by pumping operations over a period [...]

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With its interactive media library used as a reference in the study of industrial accidents, the BARPI (Bureau for Analysis of Industrial Risks and Pollutions) focuses on keeping you apprised of industrial and technological accidents and providing you with pertinent interpretations.

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